17 March 2022

On Thursday, 17 March 2022, the ASEAN-German Energy Programme (AGEP), a joint cooperation programme implemented by the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), organised the virtual Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on the study “Assessing Impact and Governance of Renewable Energy Financing.”

The FGD is one of the activities of the study to evaluate the impact of existing Renewable Energy (RE) financing schemes on RE growth among the ASEAN Member States (AMS), analyse the latest investment trends, and provide regional policy recommendations. Key stakeholders of RE development, which are government agencies, national and international financial institutions, development banks, project developers, and think tanks from 6 AMS, participated in the workshop and expressed their  perspectives regarding RE Financing opportunities albeit the existing obstacles.

During the opening remarks, Mr. Asdirhym Bin Abdul Rasib – Renewable Energy Sub Sector Network (RE-SSN) chair, Dr. Nuki Agya Utama – Executive Director of ACE, and Mr. Sergey Makarov, Principal Advisor of AGEP, highlighted the importance of the FGD to address existing financial issues in RE-related projects to accelerate the RE development and achieve the aspirational regional targets of 23% RE share in 2025.

To give the audience an overview of AGEP, Mr. Junianto M, Advisor of GIZ, introduced the AGEP and the brief of this study on RE Financing Impact Assessment in ASEAN. The presentation also highlighted the flashback of ASEAN-German cooperation since 2007, the overall objectives of AGEP in Phase II, as well as its achievement of activities.

In the next session, the introduction to organisations and study development was presented by Ms. Monika Merdekawati, Technical Officer from Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency (REE) Department at ACE. She emphasised the importance of the study in serving Programme Area #5 of ASEAN Plan of Action and Energy Cooperation (APAEC) Phase II (2021 – 2025), the outcome-based strategy #4: to promote RE Financing Schemes and Mechanisms. The study’s main objective is to analyse the effectiveness of existing RE financing schemes in ASEAN and develop the policy recommendation as a guideline to narrow down the financing gap at the regional level.

Mr. Volker Bromund, as the consultant for the study, proceeded to share the key findings of the study based on various researches. He provided preliminary results regarding the status of RE with targets among AMS, along with associated challenges and risks of RE financing. He also presented the existing financial tools, policies, and institutions that support RE and shared some initial recommendations for the policy-makers and investors.

The discussion session was conducted in World Café style, where all participants would go through two discussions, the first was about the existing gap for RE Financing in ASEAN, and the second was the needs assessment to accelerate RE Financing. Many perspectives from different key stakeholders in RE among AMS were gathered as invaluable inputs for the finalisation  process of the study.

In the closing remarks, Mr. Septia Buntara Supendi, Manager of REE Department at ACE, expressed his gratitude for the active participation of all the stakeholders in the FGD session. He also highlighted the study’s key recommendations and emphasised that the contribution of all participants in the workshop was beneficial to the study itself and the achievement of the aspirational regional RE targets. The Participants thanked ACE and GIZ for the successful and productive session. The FGD was hosted by Ms. Ngoc Huong Giang Vu, the Associate Officer of ACE.

In addition, the session recording is available to be accessed here.